This women's bathroom at Comic-con in the San Diego Convention Center has a Bates Motel theme. PEGGY PEATTIE, ZUMA24.COM

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The King of Comic-Con isn't a Wookie. It's probably Stan Lee, the brains behind, among others, Spider-Man. Here, the comic writer, actor and producer is shown addressing a crowd at the 2012 comic-Con. FRAZER HARRISON, GETTY IMAGES

Jacob Barrhean does his best boy wonder as Robin. SEAN M. HAFFEY, ZUMA24.COM

We survived.

Made it through another year at San Diego Comic-Con International without getting brain-munched by zombies; managed not to get sliced or diced by any of the many light saber-wielding Darth Vaders. And we're grateful to have avoided transformation into Your Little Pony by the herds of little girls and big boys who love those sparkly pink cuties and Comic-Con.

For example: Huge crowds turned out this year to say farewell to the show "Dexter," which is about to wrap up its run on Showtime. Fans also wanted to hear from the allegedly living humans behind AMC's "The Walking Dead" about next season. (For what it's worth, "The Walking Dead" made its usual Comic-Con splash, with a zombie prison and a handful of moldering dead with whom you could pose for uploads on Facebook and Instagram.)

And as ever at Comic-Con, there were hints of what soon will burble in zeitgeist. The BBC's "Dr. Who," celebrating its 50th year, is only going to get bigger. The movie adaptation of the fantasy novel "Ender's Game" is getting a buzz boost, as is "The World's End," the latest from the crew that created cult zombie comedy "Shaun of the Dead."

But that's the just the pop culture stuff that Comic-Con has become. Dig a bit and you can still find traces of Comic-Con's nerdy roots.

You have to go to the panels – the ones held in smaller meeting rooms – and you have to find the ones with topic titles such as "The Witty Women of Steampunk" or "History of Disney Pins" or "Manga Legends You Don't Know But Should..."

So we wandered those panels. We listened to those rooms.

This is what we heard.

•••

At Blizzard Entertainment's new product panel we found Emily Wilder, 19, who spent a year-and-a-half making her costume for this year's Comic-Con, turning herself into an oh-so awesome Blood Elf Warlock from World of Warcraft, Blizzard's insanely popular game.

"It's from a raid," she explained. "This is my favorite armor set of all time from my favorite raid of all time."

Why'd the San Diego student dedicate herself to carving and painting foam armor and embedding blue LED lights?

"It's pure, fannish glory," she said. "It's stuff you can't talk about in the outside world, but here you can just enjoy it."

Earlier, during the "Q" portion of the panel's Q-and-A session, Wilder was one of several fans asking questions of Blizzard execs.

Q: Would there be more replica weapons, a la Doomhammer?

A: Something "sharp and pointy" is on the way.

Q: Will fans ever be able to download and print 3-D characters?

A: Hmmm. Not now, but that's an interesting idea.

Q: Will there be a World of Warcaft movie? Please! Pretty please?

A: "I'm not going to answer that," said Chris Metzen, Blizzard's senior vice president of story and franchise development. "But stay tuned."

•••

Some panels were heavier than others.

Artist and historian Arlen Schumer's panel, "Illustration and Comic Art: History of Twin Mediums," featured exactly zero Hollywood stars and/or Wookies. But Schumer, who said his world view was shaped by comics ("I see the world in dots, comic-book dots... What is America, if not comic art? It's as American as baseball.") put up a series of slides that demonstrate, literally, how illustration and comic art have influenced each other for a century or more.

Comic artist Carman Infantino's "Atom" captured the sort of speed and motion that was found in fine artist Marcel Duchamp's famous "Nude Descending a Staircase." Steve Ditko's work on "Dr. Strange" could contain influences of German Expressionism. Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein's "Image Duplicator" borrowed an image of Magneto from an X-Men comic book. Comic artist Alex Ross's heroic images of characters such as Superman pay homage to the all-American style of noncomic artist Norman Rockwell.

"It's still comics," Schumer said of the level of art in the field today. "But it's also illustration."

•••

If there is a perfect Comic-Con panel, it might be "Ode to Nerds."

Six authors who've worked in sci-fi and fantasy, including Chuck Palahniuk of "Fight Club" fame and Cory Doctorow of "The Rapture of the Nerds," talked geek culture and how everyone at Comic-Con embodies it.

"The geekier you are out there, the more respect you have in here," said Patrick Rothfuss, author of the fantasy novel "The Name of the Wind," referencing the insular world of Comic-Con. "You go to school dressed as an elf, you get beat up. You come here you get, 'That is cool!'"

At one point, the panelists were asked about their upcoming projects. Palahniuk said he's trying to create the new genre of "gonzo erotica (like) '50 Shades of Grey, squared." He's also working on a graphic novel sequel to "Fight Club."

As for the mainstreaming of nerd culture – the popularity of once nerd-only stories like "Dr. Who" and "The Walking Dead" – Doctorow suggested they show that the lines separating geeks and non-geeks haven't totally dissolved.

"All that (mainstream) stuff brings more people into the (geek) church," he said. "Not all of (the non-geeks) stay. But some come in for that and stay for the fire and brimstone."

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